Out in the Darkness
by anonymous3.14
Summary: Out in the night, beneath the astral illumination, the inspector is almost saved from his tragic fate... almost. He'd lived his life in darkness, only a few points of light visible to him in the black sky. When suddenly the night turned to day, he found himself lost beneath the blinding light, unable to understand that it had always been there, hidden just beyond the horizon...


_**Disclaimer: I own none of the characters below or the Seine river or anything else taken directly from Les Mis.**_

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**Out in the Darkness**

The winds swirled fiercely through the dark sky, churning the waters and buffeting the trees. Houses creaked and groaned in the raging tempest and everything shuddered and swayed beneath its stormy violence. The steadfast stars in heaven alone remained unshaken by its fury. High over the turbulent waters of the Seine stretched a cold, grey bridge of stone atop which I stood, my lantern raised, searching in the darkness. The savage winds tugged at me, stinging my face and forcing me to screw up my eyes. I looked about me, barely able to discern a single object on that ill-lit road. Dark as it was, and my eyes nearly shut against the wind, I was sure endeavor would prove futile- and yet I was well aware I could not-_would not_- allow myself to abandon the pursuit. Anything could've happened-at that time of night, on that side of town. I lowered the lantern back down and closed my eyes for a moment, thinking. The crashing waters sounded faint as they drifted up from far, far below. I let out a sigh. Anything that happened to him would be entirely my fault, my responsibility, _my sin_. No, I couldn't let any sort of misfortune befall him. I had to find some way to help- but where to look? What to do...

A sudden scraping sound to the left abruptly tore me from my ponderings. I studied the direction of its origin. Shadowy buildings and darkness, no sign of the sounds source. I looked closer. Something seemed to stir in the shadows. My eyes fixed to the spot. A trick of the light? The work of the wind? A moment of stillness passed... But then it stirred again, leaving no room for doubt. I watched the shadow attentively, waiting for some further hint of movement. Soon the apparition stepped out from the darkness, and I perceived in the dim moonlight a uniformed man moving slowly, in a vague, dreamlike state, wandering to the side of the bridge. I remained unnoticed. The astral lights fell upon his features and I beheld the face of, to my bewilderment, none other than Monsieur l'inspecteur himself! ...I extinguished the lantern light and absconded into the shadows. His back was to me as he stood by the side of the bridge, gazing fixedly into those black, tumultuous waters. He leaned against the balustrade, arms resting on it, supporting his head, just stood there- the impassive, purposeful Inspector Javert- amidst a storm, face downcast and solemn, absorbed in some strange, unknown thought. The illustrious inspector, scrupulous and virtuous, if a bit misled... (_quite_ a bit misled). He was truly someone to be respected, yet now his entire bearing was startlingly incongruous to his customary conduct. The discordance more than alarmed me, but I made no movement. I kept still in the shadows a moment, observing the unhappy man. What strange events must have unfolded? A man who wouldn't take any action without a reason, without some sort of purpose, stood there, despondent in the cold night air... He seemed to be deliberating- over what dark matter? Questioning- but questioning _what _confounded idea? What morbid meditations must his mind have been ruminating upon just then? _Oh! the situation was so fully transparent_ _and yet_ _the answer had not occurred to me then!_ Too lost in thought was I to act and for some time we both stood there, motionless, he deep in his somber thoughts and I in curious speculation of them.

At length, he left his leaning position and stood erect, his contemplations seemed to have finally led him to some conclusion or other. He lifted his head heavenward and fixed his eyes upon some far off object in the night sky which I failed to discover. The cold wind whirled angrily through the night sky. Did he whisper something just there? I was left no time to ponder it, for just then, to my alarm, he climbed atop the balustrade and, removing his hat, began to- seemed to- to- _to pray_! At last I snapped out of that stupid state of inaction and ran to the man, calling out to him. He heard me not, or otherwise disregarded my desperate cries. I ran as hard as I could, as fast as I could, _but I couldn't run fast enough_! There was simply _too much_ ground between us! As I raced to his aid he seemed to be listening, almost serenely for a moment, to those tumultuous waters beneath him, before spreading his arms out partly, like a seraph's wings, and leaning ever so slightly forward he- oh _God_- just before he dropped, the starlight illuminated his countenance, and I witnessed- I can never forget it- that _strange _expression, that disturbingly _peaceful _expression- No, that face will forever haunt my memories- and then he- oh! I watched in horror as he plunged! Down and down until the darkness swallowed him whole! I had reached the balustrade by then and cried out his name one last time. Placing my hands on the cold, stone balustrade, I leaned over, trying to catch a glimpse of him, I searched the darkness for any trace of him, any way he may have survived, but I could hardly see just a few feet down. Perhaps if he hit the water, I thought, if he managed to evade the stone fountain just below in the tempestuous Seine waters, then maybe he lived! ... I was still searching desperately when... that _sickening_ crunch of his bones as his body smashed into the concrete met my ears. And then- silence. He was lost beneath the crashing waves. I closed my eyes. The winds began to calm and the waves ceased their crashing. It was over. After all these years...

...

For the past years... for the majority of my life, I have been living in the chains of my sin, constantly running from the law, terrified of capture every moment. That man had been hunting me all my life, and earlier that night he had finally found me. He did not hesitate to arrested me. I appealed to him to let me first finish my task- I had been bringing a wounded soldier to the hospital at the time- and he had allowed this. He was strangely lenient with me yet again when I requested to visit my home before being taken in. Once there, he waited outside while I wrote an apology and an explanation of my arrest for my family to find. I finished the business and left the building, wholly prepared and willing to serve my time at last ...but he was nowhere to be found. And that is why I was searching out in that tempest, on that dark, starry night. That is who I was searching for. I expected to find that he'd been attacked, robbed, even murdered, maybe- for the those streets were dangerous at night. I thought I had figured the worst-case-scenario. Yet I had never imagined _this_.

Once, long ago, I stole a loaf of bread- a crime that, at the time, I had considered a small thing, and yet today has brought a man to his grave. A man who spent his life trying to protect the people, striving to abide by the principles of the law and those of his religion. The clashing of the two, which my actions illuminated and embodied, led him to his end. He drowned in the whirlpool of my sin. If only I had turned myself in, had not hidden, not run from the law... If I had made him understand, revealed to him the error in his beliefs... _Had never stolen that bread_, then perhaps the events which did unfold might have ended differently... But things didn't happen differently. They stand as they are, and in his death, my life was saved. Now, finally, after running from my sin, running so far, for so long... the chase is over.

I was prisoner 24601.

And today, _I am free._

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**_Author's note: Ahm I'm new to this site and this is the very first fanfiction piece I've ever written... actually the first thing I've written in years... _****_So, what I'm asking of you is to criticize it to bits so that I might improve my writing skills. _**

**_What else..? Uhm, I've based this mostly off of the book, or brick as I've seen it referred to (haha), except for Javert (He's not really a character in the book so much as a symbol of the law, so I went with the musical's Javert instead.)_**

**_Oh, and did you like the title? Dramatic song-alluding titles, that's how it works, right?_**

**_By the by, is it necessary to add a disclaimer? This site is, after all, designed for fan fiction, isn't the disclaimer already implied? ... Please enlighten me._**

**_Was there any part in the story you thought was written poorly? Was the ending lame? The wording too verbose? Did I have a problem with sentence structure? Did you catch on to the speaker's identity right away? What would you change about the story? Please review, I can't improve without feedback. Thank you for your time._**


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